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Panopticonic Face Book
The Panopticon and Facebook With Facebook being a platform in which many can post about friends, family, work, school, life and share thoughts and news with those who are their friends, it does have a voyeuristic aspect to it. While not everyone's Facebook is open to the public, it is still open to a certain audience. And this audience is observing even when one might not expect them to be. Creating a profile on Facebook gives the world access to a glimpse into your life, but if your security parameters are up, then simply friending someone on Facebook will allow them the same access. Bentham's Panopticon as per Foucault Foucault described Jeremy Benthams theory of the Panopticon application to everyday life, where at first it was intended to watch over prison inmates. Foucault describes that the architectural composition of the Panopticon is based around visibility and power. From the tower at the center, the viewer has access to those around him and can view them at their leisure. The ones being observed are isolated and cut off from one another and always in site. It's there that the ones being observed moderate their behavior according to how others would expect them to behave. This happens without knowledge and when they are being watched. This type of visibility causes the subject to discipline themselves. Piecing it Together Westlake admits that the internet overall falls into the panoptic gaze. Ideas of government surveillance are not foreign, especially in the times post Edward Showden. It is not hard to believe that Facebook, as part of the internet, falls into that gaze as well. Westlake describes that users can police Facebook deviants. A method this occurs is by reporting a user for a fake profile, inappropriate photo, comment or post. The users have the power of reporting at their disposal (34). Furthermore, not only do Users police other users, but users police themselves, keeping true to the theory about the panoptic gaze and it's intended effects. According to Westlake, people perform their roles online in ways that are similar to the ways they perform during their face-to-face interaction (35). Westlake quotes, "When the individual presents himself before others, his performance will tend to incorporate and exemplify the officially accredited values of the society, more so, in fact than does his behaviour as a whole." (35). It comes to a point where one wonders how real their interactions with others on Facebook are. How authentic is the person you are talking to, how are they different then their perceived appearance. "Facebook Ettiquette" exists, (38) according to Westlake and its according to this Etiquette that users govern themselves accordingly. Posting disturbing content and is unsettling to some people is not commonplace, and those who do it are sure to be called out in short time. Control Gilles Deleuze alludes to Foucault when describing his Society of Control. He describes that we are enclosed in these social groups and organization. The Schools, The Family, The Hospital, The Prison. All these are examples he lists of organizations acting as controlling factors in our life. (I) In addition to this, Facebook as a platform falls into the trope of controlling systems. Facebook has a certain way of controlling the lives of people. It has come to a point where many people are reliant on the system to plan events, stay up to date with new and keep in touch with friends. With the increase in IT (Internet Technologies) people are becoming more savvy with the new technologies that are coming our yearly that many have contracted TI (Technological Illness). We have advanced into a stage of technology where we cannot function without access to a Social Network or the most recent news. How else would we stay in touch since other means of communication are antiquated and less efficient. How else would we get our news since most subscription to many print journals have drastically decreased. This reliance on Technology and Facebook, prompted by pings, dings and bell whistles conditioning you like Pavlov's dog keeps us coming back to it. And there in lies the control. With our reliance and constant access to Facebook, the ideas Foucault brings up (Explained earlier on) can be more readily applied. That is to say with this constant browsing of facebook, the self-discipline that comes from the power-vision theory furthers societies control on us. Sources * Gilles Deleuze, “The Society of Control”: https://www.nadir.org/nadir/archiv/netzkritik/societyofcontrol.html * Michel Foucault, excerpt from Discipline and Punish, “Panopticism” * Westlake, E. J. “Friend Me If You Facebook: Generation Y and Performative Surveillance.” TDR (1988-), vol. 52, no. 4, 2008, pp. 34–40. www.jstor.org/stable/25145553